


now with fifty percent more hand holding

by roserade



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Gen, Pokemon AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 19:15:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5755039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roserade/pseuds/roserade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They reach Cinnabar Island just in time before nightfall. — rinmaki-ish, pokemon AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	now with fifty percent more hand holding

-

They reach Cinnabar Island just in time before nightfall.

The island is nothing like what she’s remembered from the old Kanto guidebooks; whatever derelict remains of the old mansion long buried under piles of lava and volcanic ash that hardened and cooled under Southern Kanto’s cloudy skies. The lab’s gone, the gym too, the only building remaining marked out by its sleek red roof, visible from the hundred yards or so that they’re away from the shore.

Their shoes are wet, she notes, they cling to her feet all heavy and cold as the sea breeze blows by with the waves lapping at her toes. Rin’s just as excited as always, jumping off and stretching her arms to the sky the moment they land on the beach. “We’re here!” she exclaims, immediately letting Luxray out of its pokeball. Her pokemon idly paws the ground, nuzzling its trainer with a soft growl. “Come on, Maki!”

Maki feels the squelch of the sand as she carefully clambers down from Lapras. “We could have flown, you know,” she says slowly, frowning at the grains that stubbornly stick to the sides of her calves and grate against her skin. “Skamory and Staraptor could’ve easily taken us from Fuchsia.”

The air is singed with the faint smell of sulfur. Rin rubs her nose. “And miss the surfing route? No way!” She reaches over to brush the sand off Maki’s back. “Even you said how pretty the waves were, and I got Luxy to evolve along the way ‘cuz of all those Swimmer trainers we fought—”

“Most of them were too easy for you and you know that.”

Lapras nudges Maki on the shoulder with a low whine. She laughs, petting its neck. “You’re tired too, huh? Come on,” she says, returning it back into its pokeball. “We should hurry before it gets dark.”

“Still!” Rin grins, shouldering her backpack. Her hair’s messy, messier than usual, wind-swept and sticking out all over the place. Somehow it stands out even more silhouetted in the dying sunset. She grabs Maki’s hand, squeezing it softly. “I’m glad we made it.”

“Yeah,” Maki nods, and finds herself smiling in the familiar warmth, in spite of wet socks and slight sunburn.

-

 

It isn’t before long before the night sky stretches over their heads, the light of distant stars and planets shining so bright above unlike the dim skies of Celadon or Saffron. Maki thinks about home, so far away from where they are now. Cities seem to be the same wherever you go; it’s especially when in a place so small, so different, that she gets a sense of how big the world really is.

Rin grips her hand even tighter, marvels in awe at the volcano looming over ahead of them in the distance as they trudge along the route up to the Pokemon Center. “D’you think we can visit it tomorrow morning? I wanna take pictures to send to Hanayo,” she adds, quickening her pace and tugging Maki along as Luxray runs off a little further ahead in front. “Ah, wait up!”

The gravel on the ground crunches beneath her feet as Maki tries to keep up. “R-Rin, slow down,” she huffs, almost stumbling over in haste. Something near her foot catches her eye, and she bends down to pick it up. It’s a rock, shiny and glinting and smooth to the touch. Rin stops, crouching next to her to peer at the item.

“Probably just some stone,” she says, turning it over in her hand and letting Rin poke at it. It’s hard to make out what it is in the dark, and she pockets it, just in case.

“Maybe it’s a nugget,” Rin straightens up and stretches. She absentmindedly pets Luxray on the head, now that it’s padded back to her side. “Maybe it’s a really precious gem and we’ve found it and we can sell it and soon we’ll be rich!”

 “I’m already rich,” Maki says, and chops Rin on the head for good measure.  

-

 The stone turns out to be an Eviolite, once she’s checked it and double-checked it under the bright fluorescent glare of the Pokemon Center ceiling lights.

“It’s strange,” she tells Rin, “You don’t normally find these in this part of the world.”

“Guess we’re lucky then!” Rin hums softly along to the gentle lobby music playing in the background while they wait for their pokemon to be fully healed. She rests her head against Maki’s shoulder, and Maki tilts her head slightly to reciprocate the gesture, if only for a moment. She smiles.

“Guess so.”

-

 

They’re well-rested and all ready to go, immediately setting off for a short hike to the volcano the first thing that morning.

“It’s different,” she says. “I was here when I was little, Mama and Papa had some work at the lab.” She watches Rin kick around a piece of pumice along the way, Luxray pouncing and playing along with its trainer. They stop the moment the rock rolls too far off the path, lost amongst the thousands of other similar chunks.

“Oh, boo.” Rin makes a face, and scuffs at the ground with a pout. Maki raises an eyebrow.

“There’s more where that came from, you don’t have to be so sad about it.”

“It’s not that same! You wouldn’t understand.”

“Wha—” She starts, but nearly misses the twitching of Rin’s lips and the twinkle in her eyes as Rin tries to maintain her frown. Maki huffs pointedly, brushing past Rin and walking faster in a showy attempt to ignore her. Not that she means it, but.

“M-Maki!” Rin jogs to catch up, ungracefully crashing into her and bumping against her arm. “Come on, Makiiii—”

“Idiot.” Her hand meets Rin’s forehead. “Stop playing around so much, we got to hurry up and head back to Saffron for the train tomorrow.”  

“Sure, sure.” Rin seems to have found another rock to kick around. Luxray happily growls, a flicker of yellow sparks from its fur and jumps away quickly as it comes. “There’s really no rush! Hanayo said she’d be in Goldenrod till the end of the week, we’ve still got time!”

“Until we miss the train. We—no, you, you’re going to get distracted again, like those times with the weird Psychic trainer who made us babysit her ghastly, or something. Who knows what’s going to happen? I don’t want to deal with that sort of nonsense again.”

“Well, it was fun. And remember what she gave us? A nugget.” Rin waggles her eyebrows. “Now, we _were_ rich—”

“You spent it on coins that we lost at the slots—”

“I did get an Abra, didn’t I? You don’t have to be so, so, _abra-sive_ , Maki.” She laughs, nudging Maki on the shoulder again, beaming and looking much too pleased with herself.  Maki half-scowls—ah, she can’t really be mad at Rin (she never really was, not even when they were kids)—and takes Rin’s hand in her own. It’s warm.

They head back down the sloping path together. There’s the light crescendo of the sea waves—she wonders if they should try some fishing on the beach before heading back, maybe they’ll catch a Tentacruel? Rin would like that. She allows herself a small smile, hidden behind forcibly furrowed brows and quirked lips, for indulging in such a hopeful thought.

The late-morning sun’s starting to peek out from behind low-hanging clouds in the distance, its rays streaming through, casting fragmented hues of golds and yellows on the horizon and the sea below. Rin jokes about it being like the dive spots in Hoenn and she can’t help but agree; it really looks like that, huh, she says, taking in the whole tranquility of it all.

It’s nice, like this.

\--

-

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> things i've thought about this pkmn au:
> 
>   * makirinpana are from sinnoh, jubilife city.
>   * rin got all 8 badges from sinnoh but she doesn't really feel confident in her abilities to challenge the elite four just yet. kind of why she wants to go travel and challenge the gyms in the other regions first before tackling elite four.
>   * maki just wants to hang out with rin, hahahfhf (jk she's researching!! setting out on pkmn adventure w rin to learn more about the other regions)
>   * mkrnpn's just like dppt in pokespe, probably. brain brawn heart. wah.
> 



End file.
